written this morning…
words…
from this morning.
10/18/19
Morning. Day start. It’s Friday so what. Lunch at noon which I’m quite looking forward to. Kept thinking and thinking driving here about what I do at Sonic, and how to make it easier, how to make conversion more consistent and more my weekly if not daily culture. And I figured it out… be an AE of ME. Sell Mike Madigan and don’t even think about Sonic. See how it goes. Will start prospecting at 09:30, thereabouts. Salesforce training put off till later in day. Submit expenses and do my own budget. Get through the stack of papers in car. Everything today for sakes and senses of waking at 4am tomorrow. No more dreaming about it, or anymore hoping. Just doing.
Building my collective conversation with vendors and business owners, implementing more creative. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be out there just selling. Maybe I will. Maybe I’ll go walk around Airport Blvd, knock on doors and just say hi… OR, target specific businesses. Doesn’t have to be in our fiber territory. That’s another thing that hangs me up, or stalls me. Fiberoptic, has to be fiber…. NO IT DOESN’T. A reader has to understand that just now I have I believe to be a “dream job”, or not even a job but something more promising and promoting than I’ve ever encountered, so there’s only a climb, there’s only profuse promise in what I do.
Friend sent me some articles on prospecting, sales, as a resource. Not sure I need them but I’ll surely check them out. No sales this week. Met yesterday with owner of the photo lab in Berkeley and she wants a proposal, but it’s not ink. Quite sure it will be ink, but I want it sooner. I know, I know… play the long game. Like being in college again. You want to be in grad school the day you enroll in the community college. Just doesn’t happen that way.
8:42. Latte making its effect felt. Have an idea for today…. Then I shed it. Time to write another, and another…. Starts with this desk. This area, how I was asked if I want a bigger space and I said no I rather prefer this incubator. The day, started. Morning. I have hours to compose. So, compose something. Need some office supplies, I think.
Thinking I should just write a fucking book about prospecting… that would speed things up. And I know some are reading and saying be patient, it takes time, things to that throw. But what if I want to accelerate, excel, move a little quicker? Nothing wrong with that. So…. Go.
But before I do, thinking about what to say I realize is absolutely NOT the right approach. Prospecting should not be prospecting. A veteran in the department told me he just walks in, says hi, asks if anyone needs internet, and goes from there. Not so certain I want to be that airy in my speak, but the casual and friend form I absolutely aim to embody.
Need more time to self, to brainstorm. Then have that brainstorm have an immediate or proximal return. MY business story, like I said yesterday in my BNI talk, is just starting. 9am just now and not quite ready to leave office. Want to take a few more notes…. Notes to self, notes for day, jots for what I not want to say but how I want to feel in interactions.
10/15/19
Okay. Leaving office soon. Walking around San Rafael, Petaluma. Seen as the speaker of Sonic, the one always out there speaking about it. In the street, rarely in the office. Finishing latte, break in a minute, move some money around for blogs. All well and wonderfully right in my written world.
More than likely will hit traffic. Not worried about it.
Latte done. Thousand words for morning, for NaNo book. Will write at lunch, no run. May even eat. OH, brought leftovers from the other night. Not sure I should eat them, though. And, it sounds more fun having something in San Rafael. That one place… what’s it called? Where I had the omelet? Oh that’s sounds amazing. So hungry. Maybe get breakfast first. No… go get in front of people.
Getting in the car in a bit. Teaching people how to prospect, then sell… Into the day, my way.
Building a sales or marketing funnel….
No. Collective and pervasive conversation is what you want.
Don’t “add people to your funnel”. There’s nothing genuine or promising in that act.
Learn the stories, the characters, find the like-notes and harmonies.
9/25/19
Re-organizing and drawing strategy with my approaches to accounts. Everything is a prospect, and diminish the emphasis of having a focus now. Geographically yes I think it’s advantageous to have a focus area, but that’s not to say an AE or other like-sales rep should dismiss other areas.
2:32pm, and writing emails. Using a current template, but I will re-write. Thinking of myself as a sales teacher. Well, eventually. This is my template, my training and playing ground. Test everything.
102 degrees outside. Hoping over hoping that class tonight is somehow cancelled. Somehow.
Started a book last night, a narrative prompted from last night’s lecture. Approaching all of this, this in the AE position, like a professor. No, a teacher. Let’s say I had to teach someone how to sell… what’s the first forward of instruction I would utter? “Say hi.” Greet the person. Don’t talk about your product, service, or you. Learn about them. And note, reader, that this is a note to self, with throws of growling intent to intensify the transactional momentum of my presence here. Not just a sale here, a sale there, but a belt of signings. Change everything, and however many times I’ve written that before doesn’t matter. The aim of this project changes…. Today, Day 54. Not much time to adjust or re-adjust. The Account Executive is about more than transacting, or even relationships. But nearness, communication, accessibility.
This position is reminding me of sales thoughts and musings I’d have in the vineyard when at Roth, walking the SB lot, like that morning I was walking the last few rows and decided I’m done with a full-time fold in the wine world. I wanted more. I found Sonic, then ten months into Sonic I found this set of pages. So… get more professor-like…. Write a book on how to do this while learning to. ONE, no self-doubt. Absolutely not allowed. TWO, write everything down. Everything you learn, everything you think, everything you want. THREE, keep conversation perpetual, tireless, and creative.
In these remaining 46 days, starting the other journal Mom bought me. The larger one, leather-covered with the Apache blessing on it reading “May the breeze blow new strength into your being.” About what will I note, exclusively… how to do this. How to be an Account Executive, or “successful” at selling. Not a corny how-to, and not a Death of a Salesman connect. But my pages, how I made this work, how I made it mine.
FOUR, be your own agency. Write your aims, sights, weaknesses, areas of study…. WORK.
Tirelessly.
Looking for more conversations…. I’m thinking far too much, I know. So bad that I’m writing how much I’m thinking which is even more counter-everything. Productive, intuitive….
2:16pm. MY job is prospecting, funnel building and not how those Facebook infomercial, pseudo-guru types talk. No… this is a collective communication that strays and sways any way it may. I follow the talk, keep it alive however I can. Productivity yes but a sped and rich movement from result to result and deliverable to deliverable. I’m studying work, what I do here at Sonic, and all this is, any sales position really, but this AE act most notably is avoiding silence however you can.
Words always present, always movement. Always aims and targets, a consistency of embodiment. Work, knowing Now, FREED. Me.. finally. The wine industry could never produce this.
Feeling the 7-mile run from lunch. Want some cold brew coffee, a sparkling water. Will walk to back room, pause for a sec. Know my topic, finally. Not wine, not even writing, but WORK. Right here, in this chair, with these post-it’s, this pen and journal.
Keep talking, keep meeting and connecting.
First sip of cold brew and I’m rebuilt.
Thoughts, and a Question…
Thinking more and more about business and prospecting, building or growth if you would, and how many ways there are to do it. More than I can cascade here, obviously, but everything stretches from one principle. Conversation. And, genuine, heartfelt conversation at that. No intention to convert, or sell, just knowing the person, knowing them better. Right now, I’m calling, from a list of existing prospects. Now, calling already has the not so much assumed but anatomical and definite insinuation of sale, or at the very least marketing. I’m doing my best to just de-charge the call. Call to say hi, and check in.
What do you do, when prospecting? Do you call? And if you do, how do you approach?
What the wine industry taught me about business….
Presence, truth, LISTEN.
Be present in all conversations and occasions.
Truth is the currency, language, and unlocker.
And, more than anything, listen. Listening takes you everywhere. To conversion, growth, success, whatever.